Five to Nine
by breeeliss
Summary: The end of a long day filled with hard work, frustration, and too much coffee. Korrasami Modern AU. Pro-bending Circuit Season 2 submission


**Title:** Five to Nine

 **Words:** 2,339

 **Summary:** The end of a long day filled with hard work, frustration, and too much coffee. Korrasami Modern AU. Pro-bending Circuit Season 2 submission

 **a/n:** Submission for Season 2 of the Pro-bending Circuit forum. Been planning a longer Korrasami story, so I figured I'd keep with the flow and throw up a little something for the two of them.

 **Task:** Someone returning home after a long day.

 **Prompts:** (color) sage green, (smell) jasmine, (AU) No bending

 **Bonus:** Include the element Fire in the story

 **OOO**

 _Five to Nine_

 **OOO**

It was close to nine thirty before Asami's car had pulled up along the sidewalk.

Korra had been in the middle of highlighting one of her bio textbooks — failure to actually retain anything she was highlighting aside — and noticed the headlights of Asami's sedan illuminate the side of the apartment building like a pair of floodlights. Korra frowned, grabbed the remote, and lowered the volume on the Netflix series she was keeping on in the background. Sure enough, house music was blasting through the car's speakers at top volume — and Asami said _Korra's_ music was loud — before the engine was cut and the driver's side door was slammed shut. Korra chuckled when she peeked out the open window and could just barely see Asami tiredly mouthing the rest of the words to the song she was just listening to while shoving her keys into that black hole of a purse of hers. Despite the horrific hour, the woman _seemed_ in good spirits, which Korra hoped was a good sign. Still, it wasn't official until Korra asked.

She ran to the kitchen and turned on the stove, peeking in quickly to make sure Asami's dinner was still there and ready to be warmed up. It was take out night, so Korra dutifully decided on Thai food since it was Asami's favorite and had the potential to double as celebratory or comfort food. Hopefully it would be the former, but Korra had already been prepared since this morning for anything. Considering how late it was, the news was either really good or really bad.

The front door muffled the sound of keys jangling before the front door slammed open to let in the sound of a withering sigh. Korra poked her head around the corner and found Asami leaning her forehead against the door, groaning like she was in pain. Not that she blamed her girlfriend in the least. Asami probably left at five this morning to run over to Future Industries to solve what she described could be the making of her career or the thing that could ruin her reputation for years to come, demolishing everything she had ever worked for.

A dramatic end, but Asami was a worrier that way. Came with the territory of dating a perfectionist, but Korra digressed.

"You okay over there?" Korra called from the kitchen, trying her hardest to remove all humor from her voice. There was a chance that the work day didn't go well, and judging from the way Asami merely shook her head and let her house keys and purse clatter to the floor, that might have been a possibility.

After leaning against the door for a bit, Asami finally turned to make her way through the hallway and into the living room. Korra knew she was meant to be supportive, but it was hard not to smile fondly at the sight.

Asami was usually the picture of put together. Her makeup was meticulous — perfect contouring, filled eyebrows, and dark lips that made her look like she carried a license to kill. She pressed her shirts every morning, lint rolled her skirts, smoothed down her blazers, and glided in her heels because, yeah, she was the CEO of her own company and she looked damn good doing it.

But her eyeliner was smudged, her hair was lifted in a sloppy bun, her lipstick had faded throughout the day — licked off or stuck to the rims of numerous paper coffee cups — and her shirt sleeves were rolled up to her elbows in a poor attempt to hide the wrinkles that had formed over the course of the day. While she was toeing off her heels and dragging herself into the living room, Korra couldn't help but decide that she really liked how this unkempt, slightly slovenly version of Asami looked, even though it was the result of a terribly long work day.

Korra stood in the doorway separating the kitchen and the living room and stared at Asami warily as she sighed and looked at Korra with the nervous sort of smile she sported whenever she had something important to say.

"So?" Korra prompted.

For a moment, Asami shrugged lamely and looked down at the floor, balancing on the outsides of the soles of her feet, something else Asami did when she was nervous and had something important to say. She grabbed her elbows and hugged her arms close, and Korra suddenly felt her heart tug painfully and sink deeply into her chest. "Oh, babe," Korra began hesitantly. "I-I'm sorry, I can't believe that..."

Asami was shaking her head again, still keeping her head down and refusing to make eye contact. Just when Korra was about to pull her girlfriend into her arms and sit her down for some nice Thai comfort food, the CEO peeked up through her mascaraed eyelashes, her sage green eyes filling with amusement and her smile slowly stretching into a stunning grin. "I got it."

There was a delayed reaction where Korra could do nothing but blink and stare, but she quickly got her wits about her and felt her cheeks stretch into a smile to match Asami's. "Wait...you got it? It's done?"

Asami nodded like a little girl. "Uh huh. We finished the merger."

Suddenly, Korra screamed in excitement and Asami screamed as well, and suddenly they felt just like two teenagers that just got prom dates. Asami ran to her girlfriend, wrapped her arms around Korra's neck, and jumped up. Korra snorted in surprise as she quickly reached her hands down to hook around Asami's thighs while the taller woman's legs wrapped around her waist. To their friends, it was always a comical position because Asami had inches on Korra and they almost expected these kind of affectionate displays to be mismatched. But Asami was always more affectionate, and Korra was the stronger of the two.

Asami pulled Korra into an enthusiastic kiss — made messy by all the smiling and laughing that the two of them were doing in between — and for a moment things felt glorious. Kissing your elated girlfriend while her legs were wrapped around you, standing in the living room of the apartment you shared together, Netflix playing in the background, and an oven warming up the house — those were the little things that made Korra's heart swell and caused the world tilt in a way that made everything look bright and lovely.

Asami finally pulled away, giggling when she saw the small traces of lipstick she left along Korra's lips. She swabbed her thumb across the stain. "The Varrick Industries and Future Industries merger went off without a hitch. I am looking at pretty sweet raise in the future," Asami smirked.

"That's fantastic," Korra exclaimed, hugging Asami's thighs closer. "God, that must have taken all day. Wait, come to the kitchen and keep talking, you need to eat."

Asami touched down to the floor gracefully and started to unbutton her oxford to a level that was less restricting. "Well, the paperwork was a mess. It took hours to get all that sorted in time for the lawyers from Varrick's end to come and offer their stuff. Although, leave it to them to be almost just as unorganized."

The food was already warmed up and Korra had already stuck in a fork and slid it across the table to where Asami was sitting. Once the food was in front of her, she closed her eyes, sighed delightfully, and immediately began tearing into the Pad Thai dish like it was the first time she had seen food. Korra figured as much. Signs of an overworked Asami included smudged makeup and a convenient disregard for the basics of eating three square meals a day.

"What time did you finally finish signing off on everything?" Korra asked.

Asami rolled her eyes and spoke through a small mouthful of food. "Only like an hour ago." She swallowed. "You have to understand, Varrick is freakin' insane. Wanted full creative control on any potential projects that would be sent to my development department. You wouldn't believe how long it took to talk him out of that." Asami reached towards the center of the table and tipped over the coffee pot that she had left there early this morning. Korra immediately reached over and snatched it back.

"No you don't," Korra chided. "No more caffeine. It's either tea or nothing at all."

"But _Korra_ ," Asami pouted, drawing out the vowels in her girlfriend's name and resting her cheek on the surface of the table. "I've had a long day."

"Exactly," Korra pointed out. She decided to dump the cold, stale coffee down the sink. That Asami — self proclaimed connoisseur of all things having to do with coffee — would even contemplate drinking that meant that she was seriously drained. But still... "I know you. You probably broke that Keurig in your office with the amount of times you went to it for a cup. You're probably gonna be wired all night as it is. I'll gladly make you some tea."

The CEO puffed out her cheeks and stared forlornly at the lines etched into their wooden table. "Jasmine, please."

Korra cradled Asami's cheek and placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Of course," she said sweetly before she rummaged around the kitchen for a book of matches.

Although Asami said that Korra's shock was completely unfounded and a tad ridiculous, Korra was still amazed by the fact that such an expensive stove top that came with such an expensive apartment could actually malfunction and stop working properly. Korra remembered the days before she moved in with Asami where she'd have to hide behind the kitchen table and throw lit matches at her oven to light the pilot light that was always going off. It was something she always associated with the cheap buildings she occupied during the beginning of college. This wasn't quite on the same level — they just had to light the gas on the stovetops manually until someone came to fix it, something about the ignition not working — but it reminded her of the day she called Asami frantic because she almost burned her eyebrows off trying to light the stove instead of getting it fixed like a normal person.

After lighting the gas and waiting for the blue flame to spout out of the stovetop, Korra put a kettle on top of the flame — " _Tenzin always says that tea from a kettle tastes better than tea from a microwave and I'm tempted to agree, Asami" —_ Korra looked around for the jasmine tea leaves that she has gotten Asami with her last paycheck. "Okay, so Varrick being an idiot, unorganized lawyers, and ten cups of coffee later. What happened after you signed it?"

Asami leaned back into her chair and was trying to twist the last few bits of noodles around her fork. "I don't know," she replied wistfully. "It felt...like I'd finally done something important, you know?"

Korra scooped in the tea leaves. "You make it sound like you've _never_ done anything important since you've been working there, and I know that's not true.""

"Well," Asami started, "I guess not quite like that. But...you know everything's been a little bit of a mess there since Dad died. I sort of got left to clean it up."

That much Korra remembered. It was those nights when Asami would curl up on the couch, frustrated and stressed nearly to tears, talking about all the lost funds, defective prototypes, and dropping stocks. Future Industries was one hell of a tech company, but — as Asami had sobbed into Korra's shoulder many a night — it only ran with a good president. A good leader. For a while, it seemed like Asami wasn't sure she could be that. Korra didn't doubt it for a second, but Asami thought a lot of dark things right after her father had died. Asami couldn't be without her company any more than she could be without her father, and she was always hard on herself when Future Industries was slipping out of her control.

The fragrance of the jasmine tea was wafting through the kitchen, and Asami immediately breathed it in with a large gulp of air. Korra smiled softly. Asami liked the smell of jasmine because it was calming and made her think of her mother. Korra wasn't surprised that Asami had requested it. "But you did clean it up," she continued. "Your company is going to do so well now that you've got some extra muscle. You said so yourself."

Asami grinned. "Yeah. I changed things. I made a huge difference. It always seemed like I was never going to run this place as well as my Dad did, but...I don't know, today it just felt like, for a moment, I can actually do this. I can take the reigns and handle things myself. It was…" Her hands lifted, physically struggling to find a powerful enough word. "...exhilerating."

That was quite the word, Korra mused. For a while, it was a wonder if Asami's relationship with work and getting her company back together would ever have connotations that weren't directly connected to the bitterness behind losing her father. Korra was always there with kind words, but sometimes kind words were only nice to listen to and not enough to grab onto. It was then that she realized that this was something Asami needed — a long day filled with hard work, frustration, and too much coffee, ending in _exhilaration._

The tea was already poured and Korra dragged the second chair closer to Asami's as she handed over the tea. Asami immediately started taking small sips while Korra reached up and tucked a few of the sweat slicked baby hairs near the crown of Asami's head that hadn't quite made it into her bun. She smiled softly. "I'm really proud of you, you know that right?"

Asami turned her mouth towards Korra's hand and placed a light kiss in the center of her palm. "Thanks."


End file.
